India's Mission to Mars - MOM

Hello guys today I am going to tell you about one of the most historic achievement of India and Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ). Indian Space Research Organisation has launched many missions and has set some milestones in the space Technology. But what is the achievement which has been the greatest among all ? It is definitely the Mars Orbiter mission which is commonly known as MOM. After the successful launching of Mars Orbiter mission Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a tweet saying "MOM never disappoints". So let us know some facts about it.

What is Orbiter ?

Whenever a space mission is carried out it can be of 3 types. It can be a lander mission, it can be a rover mission or it can be a Orbiter mission.

Lander mission is a mission where the satellite or the device is landed over the surface which is to be interrogated. It has no movement at all.

Rover mission is same as lander mission. The difference between Rover mission and lander mission is that the Lander mission is immobile and the rover mission is mobile. That is, rover can move over the surface which is to be interrogated.

The Orbiter mission is different from all. I'm the Orbiter mission the satellite is launched and is set on the outer Orbit of the celestial body. MOM was an orbiter mission.

Launching of MOM

The Mars Orbiter Mission was launched in November 2013. It reached Mars on 24 September 2014. India became first country from Asia to reach Mars. India also became the first country to reach Mars in the first time. Even the superpowers of the world like United States of America and Russia took two and three attempts respectively. 

This achievement done by ISRO is big in many times because countries like China and Japan have still not achieved it.

The total cost of Mission was only 450 crore rupees which is even less than 4 rupees per citizen of India. Hollywood movie named gravity had a budget of 670 crore rupees. The weight of satellite was almost 15 kg. It was carried by PSLV-XL. PSLV stands for polar satellite launching vehicle.

How it was launched ?

ISRO used low energy transfer or hohmann transfer. The mission completed its journey in three phases.

PSLV XL placed the orbital in an earth centric Orbit. Where it completed multiple Revolution and then transferred in heliocentric Orbit. From where it was brought in the martian orbit.

In simple words MOM only needed energy to be settled in the earth's Orbit. Once it settled in the Earth orbit it started revolving the earth. After each revolution of the earth the height of satellite was increased. After 7 revolutions of earth , during 8th revolution it was settled into the orbit of sun. From the orbit of sun , it was brought into the orbit of Mars.

ISRO use the unique mechanism in this mission known as autonomy or electronic brain. It was responsible for the continuous reorientation of the orbital in such manner that communication panel were towards Earth and solar panels were directed towards sun. In future it will be used in satellites capable of detecting any sudden development.

Objective of Mission

The only drawback of Mars Orbiter Mission was that it had no objective. ISRO has always define Mars Orbiter mission has Technology demonstration machine. ISRO was successful in carrying out deep space communication. This mission told whole world that what India can achieve in the field of space Technology. India marked its presence in the space technology. This was a machine which told whole world a new way to reach Mars. Previously NASA and other world space Agencies used direct method to launch satellite to Mars.

Payloads in MOM

The Mars Orbiter mission carried only fight payloads.

Mars colour camera - it has provided some of the best pictures of Mars surface.

Methane sensors - for detecting methane

MENCA - mars exospheric neutral composition analyser to study neutral particles in Mars atmosphere.

LAP - lyman Alpha photometer to measure the relative abundance of hydrogen isotopes

Thermal infrared imaging spectroscopy